RRND Email Full Text (Scheduled)


    • Are Free Traders Materialistic — or Are Protectionists?

      Source: The Daily Economy
      by Donald J Boudreaux

      “The claim that protectionism serves ‘higher ends’ rests on a confusion about both economics and the non-economic goals people actually value.” (01/09/26)

      https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/are-free-traders-materialistic-or-protectionists/

    • There Will Be More Renee Goods

      Source: The Dispatch
      by Jeremiah Johnson

      “On Wednesday, a woman named Renee Good was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis. There are a lot of things you could say about the shooting. … You could point out that it is extremely unclear why ICE officials were stopping her in the first place, or what legal authority they were exercising at that moment. You could point out how unnecessary the entire incident was, how eyewitness accounts emphasize that Good was not acting in a threatening manner …. But what’s most important to say is how utterly predictable Good’s death was. This was not an unforeseeable tragedy or a freak accident. It was the inevitable outcome of an immigration enforcement apparatus that has been poorly trained, sheltered from consequences, and empowered to behave recklessly.” (01/09/26)

      https://thedispatch.com/article/renee-good-ice-federal-agents-death-immigration/

    • Did the Articles of Confederation Fail? Probably Not

      Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
      by Larsen Plyler

      “It is taken, in many cases, to be fact that the reason the Constitutional Convention was called and that the Constitution was ratified was because of the failure of the Articles of Confederation system. The folks at Heritage have made their position clear: ‘The first plan the Framers tried after declaring independence was called the Articles of Confederation. The government that the Articles created failed because it was too weak to coordinate national policy among states with different priorities.’ Now, this is not particularly a criticism of the Constitution, though I believe there is room for that. But, I simply want to raise questions: What if the Articles were not failing? What if they were doing exactly what they were intended to do? What if the Articles were successful, but success was not in the agenda of powerful people?” (01/09/26)

      https://mises.org/mises-wire/did-articles-confederation-fail-probably-not

    • Assessing Modernity’s Malaise

      Source: Law & Liberty
      by Alex Hibbs

      “As anyone living today knows, the Luddites were fighting a losing battle. Though they broke stocking frames, burned factories, and killed mill owners, their efforts to stymie the rise of new cost-reducing machines could not compete with the power of the British state. Their legendary leader, Ned Ludd, inspired disgruntled craftsmen and terrified the authorities like a nineteenth-century Robin Hood. Yet the long processes of enclosure, technological innovation, and global expansion would nonetheless bring mass urbanization, the destruction of local cultures, and the rise of the technologically driven society we inhabit today. In his book Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity, Paul Kingsnorth speaks with the voice of a modern-day Ned Ludd, naming the force that propelled this change: The Machine. What exactly is Kingsnorth’s Machine? It is the culmination of all the ills of modernity.” (01/09/26)

      https://lawliberty.org/book-review/assessing-modernitys-malaise/

    • The Minimum Wage Fallacy

      Source: Independent Institute
      by Allen Gindler

      “Recently, I came across a commercial by Mayor Mamdani, who advertises his approach to supporting small businesses. He correctly identifies over-regulation as one of the unnecessary obstacles in opening and conducting small businesses in New York. Then he suggested creating yet another department in the mayor’s office, which would help businesspeople navigate the web of requirements the city demands from businesses. (It looks like a socialist brain is pre-wired to produce this kind of solution: any issue needs its own bureaucratic apparatus.) But he never mentioned the main reason why it is so difficult for new small businesses to survive, besides high rent, that is the minimum wage mandate. On the contrary, among his priorities is to raise the city’s minimum wage. He imagines politicians can decree prosperity by commanding higher pay.” (01/09/26)

      https://www.independent.org/article/2026/01/09/minimum-wage-fallacy/

    • A president who treats Washington like his chew toy

      Source: Washington Post
      by George F Will

      “It is incongruous that Donald Trump, who advertises his disdain for things European, wants to give us something that no one in his or her right mind wants: a knockoff of France’s Arc de Triomphe. Which is bad enough. Worse, he wants to situate it on a Washington site where it will clutter one of the world’s great urban vistas. He would place it on the Virginia side of the Memorial Bridge, below the Custis-Lee mansion, which sits on high ground in what became Arlington National Cemetery. … Given Trump’s gargantuan exercises of executive discretion regarding great matters of state, it might seem quaint to wonder why he cannot be stopped from treating Washington as his chew toy. This would be unworthy of our nation if he had exquisite taste. The fact that he revels in being a vulgarian takes a toll on the nation’s soul.” (01/09/26)

      https://archive.is/PHBQ2

    • Obedience, In The Teaching of Jesus

      Source: The Findings Substack
      by Paul Rosenberg

      “Please look something up: Find out how many times Jesus, himself, used the words obedience or obey. (blueletterbible.org is a good source.) Those of you who do will find a shocking result … a grand total of zero uses. About the best you can get, and only in a few versions, is a single word in John 3 that’s mistranslated. (It’s believe in most versions.) And that word didn’t come out of Jesus’ mouth anyway. Isn’t it strange, then, that modern Christian doctrine is almost fully obsessed with obedience and disobedience? This is, to the theologians, the fundamental Divine pivot; the entire drama of salvation turns on obedience and disobedience. Why, then, did Jesus never mention it?” (01/09/26)

      https://thefindings.substack.com/p/obedience-in-the-teaching-of-jesus

    • “We’re” All Neocons Now

      Source: Free Association
      by Sheldon Richman

      “Apart from a few details, I never saw much difference between Trump’s America First shtick and MAGA’s chief foe, the neconservatives. It appeared to be merely a squabble over details, such as whether democracy or strongman rule abroad best served the so-called national interest. No one believes in America Second, Third, or Nth. Trump’s action in Venezuela confirms my impression. Beneath the surface, the contrast between Trumpian America First and neoconservatism disappears.” (01/09/26)

      https://sheldonfreeassociation.blogspot.com/2026/01/tgif-were-all-neocons-now.html

    • Renee Good Wasn’t the First Person Shot in Her Car by ICE. The Justification Followed a Familiar Script.

      Source: Cato Institute
      by Mike Fox

      “In the shadows of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation blitz, a lethal pattern has emerged. Since July, immigration agents have shot at least six people behind the wheel of a vehicle (two of them fatal, including Wednesday’s shooting). In each instance, the playbook is the same: the agent claims self-defense, asserting they ‘feared for their life’ as a vehicle was ‘weaponized’ against them.” (01/09/26)

      https://www.cato.org/commentary/renee-good-wasnt-first-person-shot-her-car-ice-justification-followed-familiar-script

    • DHS Invokes Immigration Enforcement To Justify Gathering Americans’ DNA

      Source: Reason
      by JD Tuccille

      “Government agencies inevitably turn enforcement responsibilities into opportunities to extend the security state. Every initiative to document, monitor, track, or otherwise spy on Americans starts with a mandate to ensure that people are obeying some rule or law. So it is with immigration policies, which fuel government efforts to gather biometric information not just on those who want to enter the country, but on citizens born and raised here. Fortunately, the scheme is getting pushback.” (01/09/26)

      https://reason.com/2026/01/09/dhs-invokes-immigration-enforcement-to-justify-gathering-americans-dna/

    • Trump to Venezuelans: Obey My Commands and Give Me Your Oil, or Die

      Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
      by Jacob G Hornberger

      “In the aftermath of President Trump’s deadly military attack on Venezuela and his abduction and rendition of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia, Trump is now giving the Venezuelan Chavista regime a simple choice: Obey my commands and give me your oil, or die from death by starvation and illness. … After all, who cares about the U.S. assassinations of those hundred defenseless people in those little boats who were accused of violating U.S. drug laws hundreds of miles away from American shores? Who cares about those 100 people who were killed as part of Trump’s abduction raid against Maduro? Who cares about the 8 million Venezuelans who have fled the country in the effort to survive the vise of Chavista socialism and brutal and deadly U.S. sanctions?” (01/09/26)

      https://www.fff.org/2026/01/09/trump-to-venezuelans-obey-my-commands-and-give-me-your-oil-or-die/

    • There’s a Strange, Depressing Logic to Trump’s Foreign Policy

      Source: Yascha Mounk
      by Yascha Mounk

      “We tend to analyze foreign policy in terms of doctrines or ideologies. But from The Art of the Deal to his first primary campaign, Trump has always been more defined by a way of doing things than by a firmly held set of commitments or objectives about what to achieve in the world (other than to look out for Number One). That same mindset can help us make sense of Trump’s actions in Venezuela, and perhaps even to get some kind of handle on what kinds of actions the White House might pursue next.” (01/09/26)

      https://writing.yaschamounk.com/p/the-trump-playbook

    • National Defense

      Source: David Friedman’s Substack
      by David Friedman

      “In Less Bad Arguments for Protectionism I offered a number of arguments for tariffs that, unlike the more common ones, are consistent with a correct understanding1 of the economics of trade; I do not find any of then convincing but someone else might. One had to do with national defense. Suppose we get into a war with China. It would be inconvenient if some of the things we needed for the war, ammunition, computer chips, drones, or something else, were things we did not produce because we had been importing them from China. So it might be prudent to use protective tariffs to keep critical industries going even if they could not compete with foreign competitors. It is not an absurd argument, but it has several problems, especially as a defense of the tariffs Trump actually imposed.” (01/09/26)

      https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/national-defense

    • America’s AI electricity “crisis” is easily fixed: Unleash market forces

      Source: Orange County Register
      by Steven Greenhut

      “Communities are rebelling against the construction of massive data farms. Some opposition is based on land-use concerns, but it’s also is driven by fear of inadequate electricity and higher energy prices. As the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Clyde Wayne Crews explains, this is a symptom ‘of far deeper structural problems rooted in legacy approaches to infrastructure — approaches that tether data centers to coercive public utility price- and access-control models.’ Perhaps it’s time for an approach that unleashes market forces, as the AI boom is showing the limits of our regulated monopoly power model.” (01/09/26)

      https://archive.is/wGUxT

    • Trump’s Backyard Imperialism Won’t Work

      Source: The American Conservative
      by Jennifer Kavanagh

      “Simply put, the turn in U.S. foreign policy toward the Western Hemisphere does not represent (so far) the long-awaited transformation that America First ‘restrainers’ have hoped for. Instead, it is yet another manifestation of the same old American pattern: the addition of new military commitments without shedding old ones. We cannot praise the administration’s military activity in Latin America as somehow better than expending resources in the Donbas or the deserts of the Middle East — because under Trump, the United States is doing these things too.” (01/09/26)

      https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trumps-backyard-imperialism-wont-work/

    • After 35 years in prison, Charlie Vaughn is free

      Source: The Watch
      by Radley Balko

      “Vaughn, an Arkansas man with a severe intellectual disability, spent decades in prison for a murder he did not commit. He was finally released on Friday.” (01/09/26)

      https://radleybalko.substack.com/p/after-35-years-in-prison-charlie

    • The Bear Looks East

      Source: Foundation for Economic Education
      by Jake Scott

      “As the eyes of the world watch negotiations over Kiev’s future, and the ‘special military operation’ that was intended to last ten days nears the end of its fourth year, Russia is carefully deepening its economic ties outside of the West’s sphere of influence. In this sense, the deal signed between the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and Indonesia — Southeast Asia’s largest economy, and the world’s 17th largest ($1.4 trillion) — on December 22nd is emblematic of an ongoing structural realignment pursued by Russia in the last year. …. an attempt by Russia to turn away permanently from Europe and the West as its main trading partners.” (01/09/26)

      https://fee.org/articles/the-bear-looks-east/